Lecture 7 - Scientific Questions
Argument, Data, and Politics: POLS 3312
2024-02-21
We use the “polyarchy” measure which is a continuous variable ranging from 0 to 1. It measures the extent to which electoral competition is free and fair, civil society organizations operate freely, freedom of expression is respected, and media is allowed to operate independent from government interference.1
Human rights in this context measures something very specific
- Violation of physical integrity rights
- By state actorsFor example, it would not include the hate crime murder of Matthew Shepard by non-state actors (private citizens):
On October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence in a field outside of Laramie, Wyoming and left to die. On October 12, Matt succumbed to his wounds in a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.1
The specific method used by the authors was taken from previous work and reported in an article cited in this article.
It was a compilation of two types of human rights reporting.
- standards based reports from Amnesty International and the United States State Department
- events based reporting from multiple sourcesStandards based reporting will vary with the specific standards set by the reporting entity or agency
- "Amnesty International holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
1
- United States Department of State LIKELY does not report use of the death penalty, a legal punishment at state and federal level in the United States, as a human rights violation. (I have not been able to confirm this.) Most events based reporting only reports “extra-judicial killings” as violations, so would not report application of a judicially imposed death penalty.
Events based reporting likely would have reported among entirely too many other killings, the murders of:
- Philando Castile
- Breonna Taylor
- George Floyd
- Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle“What is the scope? (Time, geography, population of interest, etc.)”
Positive not normative
About explaining the world as it is
Not based on ideas about what “should be”
Based on physical proof that can be empirically tested
Non-scientific questions
topic: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)
- Did the decision repealing Roe v Wade violate rights? (Political Philosophy - POLS 3310, 3349, 4344)
- Was this case properly decided legally? (Law - POLS 3356,3357)
- Is there a right to abortion in the Constitution? (Law - POLS 3356,3357)
- When does life begin? (Philosopy/Theology - PHIL 1301, PHIL3351)
- Should Samuel Alito be impeached? (American politics/Constitutional Law - POLS 3364,3356)
- Should Harry Blackmun be canonized? (Theology - Check with the appopriate church)
Good scientific questions
About cause and effect
- "Does X cause Y?"
- "What causes Y?"
- NOT "What is the recorded measurement of Y?" - important measurement question, but not a science questionShould be measurable
It should be specific at least as to the outcome (Y, dependent variable)
“Why” questions are most interesting: “Why do different countries adopt a different policy with regard to Y?”
Good scientific question related to Dobbs:
Does the gender of litigators (lawyers) affect judicial decisions?
Write a research question on the topic of your choice
- What topic are you interested in?
- What is the dependent variable? The "Y"? The outcome?
- Do you have an idea about the independent variable? The "X"? The cause?Author: Tom Hanna
Website: tomhanna.me
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.</>
POLS3312, Spring 2024, Instructor: Tom Hanna